{"id":127946,"date":"2025-03-11T00:11:04","date_gmt":"2025-03-11T04:11:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=127946"},"modified":"2025-03-11T06:41:20","modified_gmt":"2025-03-11T10:41:20","slug":"jj-redick-rips-lakers-shortcuts-nets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/03\/11\/jj-redick-rips-lakers-shortcuts-nets\/","title":{"rendered":"JJ Redick Rips Lakers “Shortcuts” Following Loss to Nets"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Los Angeles Lakers led by as many as 15 in the first half against a Brooklyn Nets team that appeared to be tanking toward the <\/span>Cooper Flagg<\/span><\/a> sweepstakes<\/span><\/a>. What followed was a colossal collapse by the purple and gold, as the Nets rallied throughout the second quarter and entire second half to complete their <\/span>third largest comeback of the season<\/span><\/a>, 111-108. Head coach JJ Redick was quick to eviscerate his team\u2019s effort\u2014or lack thereof\u2014in his postgame remarks.<\/span><\/p>\n

JJ Redick Rips Lakers “Shortcuts” Following Loss to Nets<\/b><\/h2>\n

Redick Calls Out Lakers<\/b><\/h3>\n

Redick was particularly frustrated with the Lakers’ execution and lack of communication on offense, <\/span>bluntly adding<\/span><\/a>: \u201cI don\u2019t think being shorthanded is an excuse for how we played basketball tonight,\u201d referring to the team <\/span>missing four rotation players<\/span><\/a>, including <\/span>LeBron James<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI think it was just an overall mentality\u2014just to take shortcuts tonight. We just wanted to take shortcuts. They scored 20 points on us gambling. They had 16 offensive rebounds\u2014we ball-watched all night. We said no dare shots. I\u2019ll go through [the film], they probably made six, seven uncontested threes. Just shortcuts. You want to be a good team? You want to win in the NBA? You gotta do the hard stuff. We couldn\u2019t even pass to each other. We couldn\u2019t enter our offense. Running ball-screens literally at half court\u2014yeah, that\u2019s gonna end up in a turnover. I don\u2019t know what we were doing.\u201d<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

He added that the team will use upcoming practices to \u201cclean things up\u201d and ensure everyone is \u201con the same page.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Luka Doncic<\/a>, who finished Monday night with 22 points, 12 rebounds and 12 assists, acknowledged Redick\u2019s criticisms of the offense and <\/span>said<\/span><\/a>, \u201cThat\u2019s my fault.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe started the game good defending, \u2026 but then we just kind of let go of the rope,\u201d <\/span>Doncic added<\/span><\/a>. \u201cWe got comfortable, and we should not [have] done that.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Doncic also believes the two-day break ahead of Thursday\u2019s matchup with the Milwaukee Bucks will give the team ample time to rest and \u201ccorrect the mistakes\u201d from Monday.<\/span><\/p>\n

Not All Hope Lost<\/b><\/h3>\n

Despite the Lakers\u2019 disappointing play, there were some bright spots at Barclays Center. For one, Luka did not lead the Lakers in scoring against the Nets. That honor belonged to <\/span>Gabe Vincent<\/span><\/a>, who logged a season-high 24 points on 8\/12 shooting from the field and 6\/9 from three. Two-way guard <\/span>Jordan Goodwin<\/span><\/a> also logged a season-high 17 points on 6\/8 shooting, including five three-pointers. Rookie <\/span>Dalton Knecht<\/span><\/a> rounded out a slew of solid performances, finishing with 18 points while making eight of his 18 shot attempts.<\/span><\/p>\n

Doncic said Monday\u2019s loss was \u201cdefinitely\u201d a missed opportunity considering the contributions of those three.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI think I should\u2019ve helped more,\u201d he told reporters. \u201cThey all played great, and we\u2019ve got to have the same mentality going forward. Injuries [are] gonna happen, and [it\u2019s just gonna be \u2018next man up\u2019 mentality.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Lakers Must Play Perfect While Shorthanded<\/b><\/h3>\n

The loss only showed how the Lakers cannot take plays off against any team\u2014whether their opponents are competing for a championship or the no. 1 pick in the draft. Aside from Brooklyn\u2019s 16 offensive rebounds, they also scored <\/span>19 points off of 15 Laker turnovers<\/span><\/a>\u2014a cardinal sin, especially in a game that ended up coming down to the wire. Doncic and the Lakers must use Redick\u2019s disparagement as fuel with their playoff push not getting any easier.<\/span><\/p>\n

The purple and gold face a Bucks team that is currently fourth in the East and has gone 7-3 in their last ten games. The Bucks will likely come into the game with high motivation after back-to-back losses to the Magic and Cavaliers.<\/span><\/p>\n

Per usual, <\/span>Giannis Antetokounmpo<\/span><\/a> and <\/span>Damian Lillard<\/span><\/a> will look to give the depleted Lakers major problems, and Milwaukee\u2019s role players will aim to go to work against LA\u2019s struggling supporting cast. It\u2019s imperative that the purple and gold get back to executing at a high level on both ends of the floor. Even though the <\/span>Bucks have recently struggled on offense<\/span><\/a>, they\u2019re still <\/span>ranked fourth in effective field goal percentage (56.3%)<\/span><\/a>, and their shots will continue to fall with a bevy of bucket-getters at their disposal. Considering they\u2019re looking to get back on track, surely Milwaukee would want nothing more than to bring their A-game against a thin Lakers roster\u2014one that\u2019s clinging to a top-three seed in the West for dear life.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Last Word<\/h3>\n

The Lakers and Bucks will meet for the first time this season on March 13 at 7:30 p.m. ET on TNT. After that, LA will take on the Denver Nuggets\u2014who just leapfrogged them for the second spot in the West\u2014on March 14 at 9:30 p.m. ET.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a9 Brad Penner-Imagn Images<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Los Angeles Lakers led by as many as 15 in the first half against a Brooklyn Nets team that appeared to be tanking toward the Cooper Flagg sweepstakes. What followed was a colossal collapse by the purple and gold, as the Nets rallied throughout the second quarter and entire second half to complete their […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4265,"featured_media":127949,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1608,6,26,15,62],"tags":[49212,187,4921,306,2279,1133],"class_list":["post-127946","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-basketball","category-nets","category-lakers","category-bucks","category-nba","tag-dalton-knecht","tag-damian-lillard","tag-gabe-vincent","tag-giannis-antetokounmpo","tag-jj-redick","tag-luka-doncic"],"modified_by":"Jordan Pagkalinawan","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127946","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4265"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=127946"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127946\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":127998,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127946\/revisions\/127998"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/127949"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=127946"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=127946"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=127946"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}